Amy and I made this wonderful chicken tonight, and we even let Gary have some too. It was so much fun making it together. We agreed that the recipe could be written in a more organized way – it’s full of details and very long. We made one change from the recipe – we didn’t cover the chicken after salting it, and when it came out of the refrigerator the next day, it looked weirdly dry. Amy was worried but I reassured her that this would make the chicken skin so nice and crispy that she would actually eat the skin for once (she did!). We used more bread than the recipe calls for, and doubled the vinaigrette. The vinaigrette doesn’t need to be doubled, even though we used more bread.
- Zuni Roast Chicken with Bread Salad (The Zuni Cafe Cookbook, p. 342)
Wine: Renwood 2001 Grandpere Zinfandel (Amador County, California). This wine is made from a clone of pre-prohibition vines. It was excellent. Well balanced, soft, muted fruit. I really liked it and so did Amy.
This is THE technique for roasting chicken. Even if you were doing a different recipe, say a pan sauce and potatoes or something. Between this technique and the butterflied chicken, there’s no other way to roast a chicken. EXCELLENT!
The wine is seriously yummy.
I’m so glad you thought it was good. I agree, there’s only two ways to make roasted chicken – butterflied, and the Zuni way.